Work Place Change

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Organizations apply numerous changes in their structures of operation from time to time to facilitate sustainability and development. These organizations are work places for many people, and individuals are affected either negatively or positively when a change occurs. In all work places, the environment comprises of coordination between workers at all levels with the aim of meeting the organization’s set goals. The effort to facilitate these changes brings about mixed reactions among the workers and after that effects are apparent. Organizations normally allow the people involved to participate in implementing these work place changes.

Work place changes are of many forms. They include new appointments, transfers, promotions, organizational changes, employment of new technology and many more. People resist changes because of the fear of the unknown and past experiences that was unpleasant. The good side of change is that it promotes growth and gives access to new opportunities that could not be realized without it. Either way, changes have been found to make a fear effect on workers; meaning workers fear workplace changes since it tends to push them into unknown and unfamiliar areas. One of the biggest fears is the fear to experience unfamiliar task or experiences. This workplace change fear can be reduced if all parties; both employers and employees are involved in the implementation of the change. Organizations have different strategies of ensuring that they maintain a high level of production. These strategies involve employing changes in different times, and so, organization’s plan for changes early before they implement them. Workers who have been working in one work place understand the capabilities of their work mates and coordinate better. This coordination results in increased production, and organization’s growth is observed. In other words, change is meant to improve an organization, although it has some negative effects during implementation.

Change in a work place has many effects on the organization. These effects range from uncoordinated activities to slower performance of activities. An organization will experience low output during and immediately after a change is implemented. Organizations normally inform their clients of any new changes so that they can expect irregularity during such a time. Other than negative effects, change also has numerous positive effects. Organizations introduce these changes with a vision of improving growth and development. The proposed changes to be introduced are normally well researched and proven to be worth it. This is because the changes are aimed at improving productivity, while sustaining the growth of the organization. An organization experiences positive effects like an access to new opportunities after implementing changes. The workers can experience effects like better working conditions and terms of service. Frequently, work place changes have more advantages than disadvantages to the organization, and that is why the organization pushes for their implementation.

Development and growth strategies formulated by an organization will always stimulate change, because they involve employment of new ideas and projects. Organizations operate under a management team that is employed to oversee growth and development. The management develops a growth strategy that all other workers use as a guide. Causes of work place changes are both internal and external. Internal factors that cause work place changes can be planned or unplanned. When an organization plans to expand, downsize, relocate or restructure, the change is internal and planned. Unplanned changes are caused by numerous factors. They occur, when workers move out of the organization, new workers are appointed into the organization, workers re-promoted and demoted, new technology is employed, new working tools are employed and many more. External factors that cause work place changes range from infrastructure to environment, government policies among others.

Every organization has a management team and a working team, and they all have different roles and responsibilities. If a member of the management team or a leader of an organization leaves office with or without notice, a big change will be observed in the organization. This kind of change creates anxiety among the workers, because they normally execute their duties with an aim of succeeding and acquiring a leadership role in the future.

When an organization makes changes to the management team, it observes irregularities in production, which often affect the clientele, but if well managed, such irregularities can be controlled quickly. The working team in an organization requires the management to be stable so that execution of the activities goes as planned. Effects of a managerial change should be well communicated in a good time so that they are retained within the organization.

Changes in work places cause problems to the workers, the organization and their clientele. These problems are caused by poor implementation of the change. The biggest problem is a loss of production. All organizations have their primary objective of sustainability, and workers also have their primary objective of job security in an organization. These objectives are affected in one way or another by workplace change. Another big problem is the lack of proper coordination. If the change is a new appointment into a senior position, the change will affect the chain of command in the organization. If such a change is implemented without proper communication between the workers and the management, confusion might happen, because the workers are not conversant with the appointee, and the appointee is not conversant with fellow workers too.

Workers in the organization perform their duties according to the responsibilities allocated and the goals set. Every employee in an organization aims for a promotion into a higher level after some time. This expectation turns into a fear, when some foreign candidate is appointed into the same position with or without a notice. Workers’ fears are greatly observed when they observe an organization’s growth after their hard work and a retarded growth of their job ranks. Introduction of new changes to an organization is important, especially, when the organization wants to expand into new projects. These new projects interfere with the normal activities; thus, increase the responsibilities of individual workers. The increase in responsibilities in a work place brings about decreased production and work related stress. These effects are negative to the development of an organization, although the majority of changes require to be implemented by the current workers before new appointments for the extra responsibilities are put in place. This ensures that the new project has been proved to be worth it before a full implementation.

Work places that employ many people experience more problems during a change than smaller organizations. Most workers due to a work place change tend to develop a revolting behavior towards the change, which can be termed as negativity. Negativity is the behavior, witnessed among workers when they come across a problem and are afraid to speak out loud. This behavior is harmful to the organization and its consequences are decreased production. Negativity is easily spread to other workmates in search of support against a change. This effect becomes obvious if the larger percentage of the workers does not want the change. If such negativity behaviors are noticed by the management team, they are easily resolved in case the revolting team is involved in deciding which changes are necessary.

Efforts to get rid of negativity among people in an organization are made possible if the persons affected give out their opinions freely. This helps resolve any issues arising from an implemented change. The persons with the negative feeling against a change should also offer possible solutions and lead in implementing the resolved changes. Increased communication among the work mates improves understanding and easier efforts towards resolving issues brought about by a change.

Some of the positive effects of change are increased production and notable growth. They are possible if the organization researches the topic first from the organizations that have already implemented the same changes before. This ensures that they will have prior knowledge on how exactly implement the change and produce great results. Inevitably, growth development and sustainability are the key objectives of any organization. Workers will put more effort in any new projects and changes that aim towards the objectives. The process starts from notifying workers about the change, managing fear of the unknown and a swift implementation so that results can be seen immediately and promote confidence among the workers.

Work place change effects spread from the organization to the clientele, receiving products and services from the organization. For example, employment of new technology improves production, reduces work related stress but threatens the existence of workers. The implementation requires appointment of qualified personnel to operate and support the new technology. The change may require the organization to get rid of the workers, replaced by the new technology, while reducing the chances of developing the careers of the existing workers. The effects of employing new technology will definitely be felt by the clientele, who receive products and services from this organization, and the organization will definitely record higher production, leaving the workers in great fear of losing their jobs. This fear also affects the newly appointed workers, because they are venturing into the unknown. An organization that is planning to implement such a change as a new project can manage to sustain the existing workers and hire new ones as an expansion strategy, allowing the existing staff overcome the fear of the unknown. This way, the expansion adds confidence to workers and ensures them of sustained and better employment, while increasing production.

The change can be implemented effectively if a strategic process of implementation is employed. Upon reaching a decision to change, an organization needs to come up with a process which consists of planning what to change, communicating the plan to the workers and clientele, implementing the change and supporting the change.

The planning stage of the change starts from the initial idea. The idea has to be in line with the organization’s objectives. The idea is researched to find out whether it will bring benefits to the organization. This is done by checking the performance of similar changes in other organizations and by researching the benefits of such a change in the organization.

The next stage involves communicating information about the planned idea with the workers inside the organization and the clientele so that they can prepare for any irregular activities. This move is aimed at eliminating the workers fear of the unknown and maintaining the clientele’s confidence. During this stage, workers are allowed to participate in formulating the implementation plan, and that helps the workers absorb the idea and participate in its adoption. When an organization inputs the workers’ ideas into the initial idea, include their opinion in the change, the workers are more confident with that feeling of ownership into the change. This move is highly advised, as it encourages the existing workers and clientele to give their opinion and stop fearing the unknown. Production continues as usual because all parties are prepared for the change.

The implementation stage involves the roll out of the plan. When implementing the change, workers experience numerous adjustments and production level may be affected. An organization has to involve its clientele in implementing the change because an irregularity can hurt the customers’ confidence. In this stage, all activities are well monitored, and any development is recorded so that evaluation of the project is accurate. During the implementation, workers may experience an increase of responsibilities and commitment. Changes are welcomed by the workers only if they were involved in planning, and their opinions are included in the final change.

The supporting or managing stage comes after the change is implemented. The organization does a thorough evaluation of the implemented change to check whether it has reached the set goals. The workers will generally have mixed reactions to the change, and it is extremely important to provide guidance and support to facilitate the change. This is done by giving timelines and expected outputs so that the organization can evaluate the success of the change. The organization needs to provide training on the new requirements and regularly review the advancement of the change. The review of the advancement of the change allows the organization to evaluate the change and maintain the workers’ and customers’ confidence.

The organization that has successfully implemented a change has the responsibility of ensuring its sustainability. The organization needs to collect the views of the workers who are directly involved with the change. By keeping an open communication channel, the organization receives more accurate feedback and respond swiftly. The process of implementation requires full participation of parties involved so that production is either maintained or increased and the workers are part and parcel of the change. Production is not the only consideration when evaluating success but also the workers’ welfare. So the organization can avoid work related stress, which reduces production greatly if not observed. By ensuring that workers in the organization are involved in implementation of a change, the organization is assured of full commitment by workers. The workers also feel more secure when receiving information from the implementation team about the outcome of a change.